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![STEINBECK ON THE WRITING PROCESS. Autograph Letter Signed ("John") to his sister Mary telling her "one way to write a play or a novel or a short story," 2 pp recto and verso, legal folio, on yellow foolscap, [New York, July 20, 1946], image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2023-09%2F13%2F25339857-105-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![STEINBECK ON THE WRITING PROCESS. Autograph Letter Signed ("John") to his sister Mary telling her "one way to write a play or a novel or a short story," 2 pp recto and verso, legal folio, on yellow foolscap, [New York, July 20, 1946], image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2023-09%2F13%2F25339857-105-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 52
STEINBECK ON THE WRITING PROCESS. Autograph Letter Signed ("John") to his sister Mary telling her "one way to write a play or a novel or a short story," 2 pp recto and verso, legal folio, on yellow foolscap, [New York, July 20, 1946],
25 October 2023, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$7,680 inc. premium
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STEINBECK ON THE WRITING PROCESS.
Autograph Letter Signed ("John") to his sister Mary telling her "one way to write a play or a novel or a short story," 2 pp recto and verso, legal folio, on yellow foolscap, [New York, July 20, 1946], with original autograph transmittal envelope, page lightly creased and toned, upper right corner dog-eared, envelope toned with rough edges.
STEINBECK OFFERS MARY A ROADMAP OF HIS CREATIVE PROCESS.
In part: "I'll tell you one way to write a play or a novel or a short story. There are probably other ways but this is the one I use. You have your basic story—that's what it is going to be about. Then you set aside a certain time of day—say two hours in the morning. I take more but it isn't necessary. You think about your story for two hours. You think about the people until you can see them—all of them, how they dress, the tone of their voices, what their hands are like, what they came from. You go way back in their lives to little episodes you won't use in the story at all. Then gradually you let them begin to talk in your mind until you know how they speak and why they say what they do. Now you start thinking about them in bed before you go to sleep. You let things happen to them and see how they will react. And then you begin fitting them to the episodes of your story and then you are ready to start writing. Then you hold yourself down to a certain time or a certain word rate per day. I use the latter. If you don't do that you will get excited and anxious to finish. In a long novel it goes on for months or years. And then pretty soon it is done and you feel terrible. But that's one way to write them. If you just take that two hours and force yourself for a week, you'll find that you look forward to it. I have about 40,000 words done on this book—roughly one third [of The Wayward Bus]. I hope to finish it by the first of October. I hope nothing happens so I can't."
Mary's husband Bill had disappeared during World War II, and Steinbeck showed Mary, always his closest sister, great care after that. When she expressed an interest in writing a play or novel based on a shared childhood memory, he encouraged her (with the assistance of Pascal Covici) to write. Writing amidst the premature birth of his son John, Jr., also called "Catbird," the Nobel-prize winner records a hands-on, detailed description of his creative process.
STEINBECK OFFERS MARY A ROADMAP OF HIS CREATIVE PROCESS.
In part: "I'll tell you one way to write a play or a novel or a short story. There are probably other ways but this is the one I use. You have your basic story—that's what it is going to be about. Then you set aside a certain time of day—say two hours in the morning. I take more but it isn't necessary. You think about your story for two hours. You think about the people until you can see them—all of them, how they dress, the tone of their voices, what their hands are like, what they came from. You go way back in their lives to little episodes you won't use in the story at all. Then gradually you let them begin to talk in your mind until you know how they speak and why they say what they do. Now you start thinking about them in bed before you go to sleep. You let things happen to them and see how they will react. And then you begin fitting them to the episodes of your story and then you are ready to start writing. Then you hold yourself down to a certain time or a certain word rate per day. I use the latter. If you don't do that you will get excited and anxious to finish. In a long novel it goes on for months or years. And then pretty soon it is done and you feel terrible. But that's one way to write them. If you just take that two hours and force yourself for a week, you'll find that you look forward to it. I have about 40,000 words done on this book—roughly one third [of The Wayward Bus]. I hope to finish it by the first of October. I hope nothing happens so I can't."
Mary's husband Bill had disappeared during World War II, and Steinbeck showed Mary, always his closest sister, great care after that. When she expressed an interest in writing a play or novel based on a shared childhood memory, he encouraged her (with the assistance of Pascal Covici) to write. Writing amidst the premature birth of his son John, Jr., also called "Catbird," the Nobel-prize winner records a hands-on, detailed description of his creative process.